Jeter, Yankees Return to Contract Talks

The Yankees took a significant step toward ending their cold war with Derek Jeter during an extensive meeting Tuesday night in Tampa, Fla., according to a baseball official with knowledge of the talks.

The team met with Jeter and his representatives for roughly four hours, the official said, reopening negotiations that had been at a standstill for more than a week.

The Yankees’ contingent included owner Hal Steinbrenner, president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman. Jeter, who lives near the team’s Tampa headquarters, was accompanied by his agent, Casey Close, and another lawyer from his agency, Creative Artists.

The official would not say whether either side presented a new proposal, and both Cashman and Close declined to comment. But at the very least, the meeting represented a thaw in negotiations that had turned surprisingly acrimonious.

If the meeting didn’t bridge that gap, it may at least have been a step in the right direction. In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said, “I feel confident that Derek will remain with the Yankees, and my brother does as well.”

The last known face-to-face meeting between the Yankees and Jeter came on Nov. 8. At that point, there was little reason to believe the talks would become publicly contentious. But the apparent gap between what Jeter is seeking and what the Yankees are willing to pay him resulted in each side taking shots at one another through the media.